Manufacture of open-striped hosiery.



No. 699,954. Patented May 13, I902.

E. A. HIBNER. I

MANUFACTURE OF OPEN STRIPED HOSIERY.

I (Application filed may 8,. 1901.\ I (No Model.) 2 Shee'ts-Sheet I."

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E. A. HIRNER.

MANUFACTURE OF OPEN STRIPED HOSIERY.

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UNITED STATES '3 I PATENT OEEIcE- EMIL A. HIR'NER, OF ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE OF OPEN-STRIPED HOSIERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 699,954, dated May 13, 1902. Application filed May 8, 1901. Serial No. 59,207. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMIL A. HIRNER, a citizen'of the United States,iresiding at Allentown,'in the co'untyof Lehigh and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Open-Striped Hosiery, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to the manufacture of hosiery in which a longitudinal stripe is prod-uced by the omission from the knitting process of certain loops at regularlysrecurring in tervals which correspond for each course, the thread being caused to pass without interlooping across the spaces which would otherwise be occupied by the loops. The succession of such omitted loops course after course in longitudinal relationwith each other produces what I have termed an open stripe.

By my invention I produce a seamless'stocking knit continuously and furnished with open stripes at intervals all around the leg, of which those occupying the front of the leg are prolonged down over the foot to the toepocket, while those occupying the back of the leg come to an end at the knitting of the heelpocket, so that thisportion, together with the bottom of the foot, is knit solid.

The ordinary method of forming an open stripe is to omit from the knitting-machine two or more needles at the desired intervals. As the knitting proceeds at the points where the needleshave been omitted the thread is simply laid across the spaces thus occasioned. As a rule the omission of a single needle does not create a stripe sufiiciently noticeable to be attractive, and the omission of more than two or three produces too broad a stripe. As far as I am aware it has not hitherto been possible to produce a stocking knit continuously and without seam which has been furnished with such open stripes at the back. Thisis because the back of the leg of the stocking must be knit with the same needles which knit the heel and the sole of the foot, and'the stripe must not be continued down the heel and sole. The problem thus presented and which I have succeeded in solving is to produce an open stripe and thereafter, upon the same needles and with continuity of the knitting, an integral prolongation of the knit fabric entirely free from such stripes. The difficulty in producing such fabric does not rest merely with the omittedneedles. It might be possible to devise mechanism to throw certain of'the needles out of action for a time andthen subsequently cause them to again go into action along with their fellows. The troubleis more fundamental and arises from the fact (well known to knitters) that if a series of two or more consecutive needles once stop knitting or drop their stitches for one or more courses merely causing them to resume themotions of knitting will not make them begin to knit again. This is because where two or more consecutive loops of knitting have been dropped there is no longer any loop on the needles with which when they go into action the succeeding course can be interlooped. This is the cause of the indefinite downward prolongation in a continuously-knit fabric of a flaw caused by a dropped stitch. It is possible to cause a single needle to resume knitting after it has been out of action; but, as I have explained, the withdrawal of 'one needle from action does not produce in itself an open stripe of sufficient width tobe desirable. Ihave overcome this difficulty and'have discovered a process of knitting by which I cause single needles disposed at appropriate intervals to draw out as much thread as would be required to form a loop without allowing the loop to be formed, wherebyfa single needle produces an open stripe nearly'or quite equal in width to the space of two needles. lVith needles thus operating I produce the requisite number of open-work stripes down the back of the stocking untilthe heel-pocket is reached, at which point the special needles producing these stripes are caused to resume ordinary kuit ting and immediately commence the formation of loops,';so that from this point on, including the lowerpart'of the'foot and the toe-pocket, solid knittingis produced.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of a stocking knit according to my invention. Fig. 2'is a horizontal crosssection of the same along the line'2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic View of the needles and the top of the knitting-cylinders 'of an ordinary circular -knitting machine as seen from the exterior extended in a plane, illustrating the successive movements of the needles which occur in my process of knitting. Figs. 4 and 5 aredetailed views showing the movements of particular needles at particular points of the operation, as will hereinafter be explained.

It will be understood that the process of knitting about to be described may be carried on upon any ordinary circular-knitting machine andthat the stockings may be knit continuously from one thread, although of course the thread may be changed or reinforced, as desired.

Let it be supposed, by way of example, that it is desired to knit a stocking having five longitudinal open-work stripes down the front and five similar stripes down the back. Such a stocking is illustrated in the drawings, Figs. 1 and 2, the front stripes.being lettered T and the rear stripes S. As far as the front stripes are concerned, they may be knit in the usual way by the omission at intervals of two consecutive needles. In Fig. 3 five spaces in the front half of the needles are indicated by letters t, at each of which two consecutive needles have been omitted from the needlecylinder. These correspond in position to the stripes T, which are occasioned by the passage of the thread across the spaces thus produced without knitting. The rear stripes are made in a different way, which I will now describe. No needles are omitted from the rear half, but instead at appropriate intervals single needles 3 s are inserted in the needlecylinder, which during the knitting of the leg of the stocking operate in a different way from the rest of the needles. Five such special needles are shown, corresponding to the five stripes to be produced at the rear of the stocking. The upper contour of Fig. 3 indicates the line of the successive advancement and retractionof the series of regular needles, the movements of which will first be described. The level marked a is the normal level of the needles. At Z) a slight advance and at b a similar retraction is given each needle sufficient to throw the terminal loop which previously rested on the open latch of the needle below the latch, where it remains throughout the space a. At 0 and c the full advance of the needle preparatory to receiving a thread for a new loop takes place. At d the retraction of the needle begins. Ateretraction has proceeded farenough to slightly lift the latch because of its contact with the loop on the needle. Here the thread A for the new loop is fed in. Atfretraction eontinnes until the latch is completely closed upon the new thread holding it within the hook. At 9 the maximum depression is reached below the edge of the cylinders, causing the old loop to be shed over the hoop, while the thread within the hook is thereby formed into a new terminal loop. At 72. the needle advances to the normal level, where the operation repeats itself. The special needles s pursue simultaneously a different course. In common with the regular set they each advanceand retract at b and b sufliciently to throw the thread below the latch; but instead of the advance 0, prior to receiving the thread, a descent 7c occurs to a point m, below the top of the cylinders. This results in casting off the loop already on the needle prior to the reception of the new thread. The operation of the needle at this point is best seen in Fig. 5, which is an enlarged view of the special needle 8 in the position indicated in Fig. 3, with two adjacent regular needles at each side. It will be noticed that the needle 5 is fully retracted and that its loop has been shed, although the adjoining needles are still holding theirs. Succeeding this a partial advancemeat 11. takes place, by which the needle advances to the level 0. Here it is held until it passes into contact with the descending slope of the thread A as it feeds from the carrier and is drawn down under the hooks of the regular needles. The elfect of this movement, which is specially illustrated in Fig. 4, is to bring the needle at a slightly-lower level than its follows in under the thread, and although its latch is partially or quite closed the thread is thus forced between the hook and the latch and laid under the hook. Thereupon the special needle takes its place with the regular needles in the ordinary knitting operation, being retracted along 7" to g just as though it were knitting. By reason of the fact that it has previously cast off its loop no knitting is actually accomplished by it; but its descent with the thread under its hookdraws out a sufiicient amount of thread to have formed a loop if there had been any preceding loop upon the needle to aid in its creation. The extra amount of thread thus pulled out causes the line of fabric which corresponds in position with these special needles to be occupied bya length of nnknit thread which about equals the space of two needles, which therefore to the eye has the same appearance as the open stripes which have been produced by the spaces i t at the front of the stocking, where two needles were omitted. The entire leg of the stocking is thus knit with open stripes in front and in the rear. Upon reaching the heel needles 3, 850., must be caused to cease their special operation and be made to knit along with the rest, as in plain knitting. Reciprocation then begins for the formation of the heelpocket, and the needles 3 having, as has been explained, received the thread at 8' along with the rest at the last course of the leg immediately proceed to take new thread and cast oil in the usual way, thus causing the heel to be knit without any open stripes. The same process is employed throughout the entire foot and the toe-pocket. During the knitting of the foot the spaces tproduce open stripes down the front or top of the foot; but the sole is knit solid. Upon the commencement of a new stocking the special operation of the needles 8 is again resumed and stripes down the back of the leg thus again produced. V

There is a further desirable result produced by my process of knitting, which I will here advert to. In a stocking thus produced the intervals of plain knitting between the open stripes have a curved or ribbed appearance, which is pleasing to the eye, due to the varying tension under which the knitting proceeds. Owing to the excess of thread pulled out by the special needles and left unknit, it necessarily results that during the knitting operation'the thread in the immediate vicinity of each of these needles is more or less released from tension. This looseness distributes itself for one or two stitches on each side of the open stripe. Consequently the strip of plain knitting between the open stripes is knit more loosely at its edges than in the middle. This causes the plain stripe to erect itself in a sort of rib, attractive in appearance as the stocking lies unstretched and displayed for sale. It will be understood that the process which I have described is entirely independent of any special mechanism which may be devised to cause the operation of the special needles to take place in the manner which I have indicated. 7

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. The process of knittingopen stripes,

- which consists in causing single needles, correspondingin position to the stripes to be produced, to receive and draw down thread with the rest of the needles, and thereafter to cast off this thread, prior to again receiving the thread for the next course of knitting, substantially as described.

2. The process of knitting hosiery with open stripes down the back, which consists in causing single needles, corresponding in position to each such stripe to be produced, to successively retract and cast off the thread of the preceding course, and then to receive the thread of the succeeding course, and then to again retract with the rest of the needles and pull out an amount of thread by which each space free from'knitting which these needles occasion is broader than would be produced by the mere omission of a single needle, substantially as described.

3. The process of knitting hoisery with open stripes down the back, which consists in cansing single needles, corresponding in position to each such stripe to be produced, to suc' cessively retract and cast 01f the thread of the preceding course, and then to receive the thread of the succeeding course, and then'to again retract and pull thread with the rest of the needles, and so on, until the. leg of the stocking is knit, and thereafter knitting the heel and sole with the single. needles operating as do the rest of the needles, substantially as described.

I EMIL A. HIRNER. Witnesses: v

' O. R. B. LEIDY, L. A. ,PETERSr 

